Hidden gems populate Gotham Independent Film Award nominations

Oscar nominations won't be announced until January 5th. The Gotham Independent Film Award nominations, which come far before the Oscars, Globes, or the multitude of critic association awards, stand apart not only on the calendar, but in content. If you look at IndieWire's current list of potential Oscar nominees, for example, there's almost no crossover with the Gotham Awards. In the list of nominations below, I provide links to Film Journal reviews, and give a few recommendations of my own.

Best Feature
Bernie: This arthouse feature has earned $9 million to date, with steady returns week after week. It's also nominated for "Best Ensemble Performance," with the unlikely trio of  Jack Black, Shirley
MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey sharing the screen.
The Loneliest Planet: This one hasn't released yet, but it's about an engaged couple (one half of which is the handsome Gael Garcia Bernal) who go on a hike, and bad things happen. If the Gotham people like it, it must be good.
The Master: This is the only one of Gotham's nominations that's also polling high in the Oscar race. Though our critic Chris Barsanti felt it lacked some of director Paul Thomas Anderson's "characteristically thunderous panache," this Scientology-esque biopic is high-profile enough everyone should see it in order to weigh in.
Middle of Nowhere: The story of a woman "who cares for her imprisoned husband while struggling to keep her true self afloat," as described by critic Tomris Laffly, "reinstates one’s at times
diminishing faith in independent film," refusing to give out "louder
statements about social injustice" but instead letting the audience draw its own conclusions. Participant Media helped finance, and they only back "socially conscious" films.
Moonrise Kingdom: One of director Wes Anderson's most successful films in recent years, the charming story of young love is a natural fit for the director's reflexive, nostalgic style. Some think this one can slide into the Oscar race, with at least some chance of picking up nominations. Another nominee for "Best Ensemble Performance," this movie will likely do even better in critics' awards and the Spirit Awards.

Best Documentary
I've seen a number of docs this year, but none of these are among them. Here's a roundup of these films, and hopes that they'll be in a theatre near you or on Netflix soon.
Detropia: "A tone poem soaked in the
blues," as described by Barsanti, about Detroit's continuing decline from its manufacturing glory days, is a haunting look at what forty plus years of recession
looks like.
How to Survive a Plague: A victorious look over how AIDS has gone from a death sentence to a treatable disease.
Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present:  A countdown to the performance artist's solo show at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Room 237: Reviewed here as part of a NYFF recap, Room 237 interviews "a handful of die-hard [Stanley] Kubrick fans and scholars
who make largely preposterous, hilarious and only sometimes sober
arguments for symbols that permeate his work." Anyone who's speculated about the blood coming out of the elevator doors might find this movie a worthy follow-up to Kubrick's masterpiece.
The Waiting Room: A fly-on-the-wall look at an ER waiting room.

Among the other nominations, there are two for Beasts of the Southern Wild, "Breakthrough Director" for Benh Zeitlin and "Breakthrough Actor" for Quvenzhané Wallis. I recommend it as one of this summer's best and most successful indies. The "This American Life" crowd may take a shine to Sleepwalk with Me. Star/writer/director Mike Birbiglia was nominated for his performance in the "Breakthrough Actor" category. Everyone I know who has seen it found it sweet and recommended it to others. Awards frontrunner The Silver Linings Playbook grabbed one nomination for "Best Ensemble Performance," which is probably only a small precursor of what's to come. The Gotham Independent Film Awards are on November 26th, right in the midst of the awards releases onslaught.

Spirit Awards in a downbeat mood

By Sarah Sluis

The Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominees this morning.  Unlike last year, which was swept by crossover blockbuster Juno both in terms of nominations and awards, three films tied for most
nominations, with Rachel Getting Married, Ballast, and Frozen River each receiving six nominations, including the Best Feature nod.

The two other Best Feature nominees, Wendy and Lucy and The Wrestler, have only been seen on the festival circuit.(Could these movies' late releases have impacted the volume of their nominations?)  Wendy and Lucy will play at NYC's Film Forum December 10th-23rd, and The Wrestler, angling for a Best Actor nomination for Mickey Rourke, will release on December 19th.  While narrowing down the top five Independent films can be a trial each year, The Visitor and Milk, each nominated in other categories besides Best Feature, could easily have held their own among the top features, at least if FJI's Executive Editor Kevin Lally had anything to do the selections.

Of the five nominees for Best Feature, I can only speak to Rachel Getting Married and Wendy and Lucy (at least until I see The Wrestler next week).  Depending on your taste, "meandering" can either compliment or insult Rachel Getting Married and its long musical and dance sequences.  The quiet spiral of despair and destitution of Wendy and Lucy can be painful to watch, though director Kelly Reichardt wisely gives the audience moments to rest.  Frozen River, the story of two trapped women smuggling immigrants to make ends meet, boasts a "grasp of time, place and state of mind and economy [that] is firm and unforgettable."  Ballast also focuses on a rural landscape where "poverty seems to be endemic, drug dealing rampant, and possibilities extremely limited."  Indeed, of the five films, Rachel Getting Married is the black sheep, its addict a product of an upper-middle-class, suburban home, and the
general mood far from hopeless.

While not nominated for Best Feature, I particularly liked Chop Shop, which received nominations for Best Director and Best Cinematography.  There's nothing worse than an earnest low-budget film marred by terrible image quality, but Chop Shop plays like a collection of photographs, its depiction of an urban slum a bleaker and more static version of Slumdog Millionaire's.

The full list of nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards can be found here, but the awards ceremony won't take place for almost three months-- February 21st.